How to Plan the Best Family Stay-cation

Nothing brings me more joy than when my family is enjoying time together. I love how summer seems to slow life down and help us to be more intentional about relaxing and having fun. We try to eat outside most nights. We all swim in the pool together. We pull out the hangers and roast S’mores more often. We also love having friends and family over. But summer is also a great time to vacation.

Now, here is where I need to confess. Since we are a homeschooling family, we tend to vacation during the school year. We find places are less crowded. However, we still take the same week off every year during the summer, and we have ourselves a little “stay-cation.”

Have you heard of that term before? Well, it’s a vacation in your own home. Before you throw up your arms in disgust and declare that you’re not really on vacation if you’re still at home, let me explain a bit more.

I get it. There is an extra element of relaxation when you are away from your normal to-do list that you naturally have in your own house. You really have to fight the urge to get things done around the house during your stay-cation, but it’s still so worth it.

Time for another confession. We live in San Diego. Super fun, right? Well, I’m sure it is, but we rarely get out and “play” tourists. My husband and I used to laugh that our friends and family had seen more of San Diego and done more fun things in our area than we have done. People come here all the time to vacation, so I guess you can say that we decided to vacation here, too.

There are actually lots of great benefits to staycations. First, the obvious one, it’s cheaper! No hotel or travel costs. Another added bonus is that there is no packing up the whole family to get on the road. You have all the normal comforts of home, because you are home.

Our stay-cation is actually one of our favorite vacations. But I’ve found through the years that I needed some ground rules to make our stay-cations truly great — and truly relaxing.

Click here to read 4 ways to make your stay-cation the best ever on For the Family!